Cancer Support

I just lost a friend to pancreatic cancer.

Her diagnosis was sudden, and an absolute stunner of a diagnosis - because her sister had been diagnosed with it 18 months earlier. She was absolutely determined ot beat it - as her sister had. Unfortunately, the universe had different plans for her and despite her best efforts she died 10 weeks after diagnosis. She had made absolutely no preparations for the possibility that she would not be successful in her fight.

So - if you can - fight, but prepare for all possibilities.

I'm glad to see (above) that you are involved in palliative care. Anyone with any chronic illness should have paliative care. Take advantage of all that palliative care offers. Cancer sucks (I am currently NED with two forms of cancer). Treatment often sucks more. Palliative care helps make it suck less. Make informed choices about quality of life v. quantity of life. You may get both (so far I'm lucky), you may have to choose. It's your choice, but go into it with open eyes. No cancer treatments are cost-free. Treat only if the cost (of treatment/risks of not treatment) is worth it to you. My friend chose fighting above all else, and lost precious time with her family because she was so focused on the fight. I chose to avoid radiation for my most aggressive cancer because the decrease in risk (a small decrease in the risk of local recurrence) didn't justify the cost (immediate and permanent loss of function in my dominant arm)

Also - take some time to get your ducks in a row for your family/friends. Estate planning, if you haven't done it yet. Conversations with them about end of life decisions, what you want for care when you are unable to communicate (even temporarily) with your doctors. My friend had to do all of this with her family after she was already in the process of actively dying - and unable to commucate much of the time, and not legally competent to make estate planning decisions. They were left making decisions based on her determination to defeat the beast until she recovered enough briefly enough to communicate that she had changed her mind.

I wish you the best of luck - however your journey progresses!